Policy & Practice December 2018

president‘s memo By Tracy Wareing Evans

Building Opportunity Ecosystems That Advance Social and Economic Mobility

N o one sector can advance social and economic mobility alone. While it is possible to increase efficiency and effectiveness through collaboration and services integration in a person- centric way, experiences across the country have taught us that significant gains in outcomes for families are not possible unless we move beyond merely addressing the symptoms to surfacing and resolving underlying root causes so that everyone who lives in a community can thrive in it. With a resolute focus on advancing social and economic mobility for people with low income in America’s cities, we have teamed up with the Kresge Foundation Human Services Team (Kresge) to invest in six initial Opportunity Ecosystem Sites across the country. We’ve been privileged to be partners with Kresge for several years now and have our sights on the same “north star” captured in our members’ vision at APHSA as “thriving communities built on human potential.” We share the belief that an opportunity ecosystem must be fueled by the people who live there, along with multiple networks contributing value through distinct vantage points, and collective impact efforts aimed at Effectiveness (OE) practice, we are helping distill the protective and risk factors at play in each selected ecosystem site and developing the community’s capacity for change in order to advance social and economic mobility, with an explicit emphasis on achieving greater racial equity. At the heart of this work is the Human Services Value Curve. If you’re not addressing systemic barriers. Through our Organizational

directly using the Value Curve yourself, you’ve likely read about it in previous issues of Policy & Practice and how it has been widely adopted across the country by more than 100 public and community based-organizations as a helpful lens for advancing our collective work. The Value Curve has been directly embedded in Kresge’s Ecosystem Investment Tool and is helping organiza- tions build system capacity at individual, unit, agency, and community levels to enable social and economic mobility.

n Dakota County, MN (St. Paul) — working with APHSA’s OE team for several years and employing the Value Curve as part of its overall strategic framework. Likely focus as an Opportunity Ecosystem site: county- wide network level in developing a shared strategic framework, factors, analytics, and improvement strategies with the APHSAOE team; mature efforts are in place for Value Curve stage progression, ecosystemdevel- opment, and racial equity toward improved social and economic mobility. Likely focus as anOpportunity Ecosystem site: in development. n Jefferson County, CO —one of the testing locations for the Kresge Ecosystem Investment Tool; mature with a focus on structural inequity and social and economic mobility. n Fairfax County, VA —also worked

Current Opportunity Ecosystem Sites (as of October 2018)

All identified sites are in early and varying stages of defining a scope of work as an Opportunity Ecosystem. Many had already been working with APHSA’s OE Team and demonstrated a readiness for accelerating or advancing ecosystems. They include:

See President’s Memo on page 30

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December 2018 Policy&Practice